That story, together with the news that mega-wealthy Steve Jobs has resigned and the concurrent thread on this forum about his approach to work, got me thinking about my own financial situation.

I don't especially love what I do as I would far rather earn my keep entirely from writing, but I really can't complain. I get paid well, and I am debt free save for a mortgage of about £100000. If I died tomorrow (not that I am planning to), I would leave my family fairly well off due to insurance. Meanwhile, on a monthly basis, I can afford the things I need, but not often stretch to the things I just 'want', especially if they cost more than a book.

At the same time, I know that if my vehicle broke down, I would struggle to pay for it without using a credit card, and I have few savings to draw on either for the future or for immediate 'emergencies' as I started earning relatively well only in the last few years.

For all this, I know that I am fortunate, yet also worry from time to time - especially when I consider my prospects in the event of losing my job or some sort of economic meltdown.

Like you I have a £100k mortgage which I'm fine about. Some saleable assets, no savings and no pension, but also no other debt. I don't worry about it but I'm in a reasonably secure job. If I lost my job for any reason I'd just have to find another PDQ to support my family.

I feel old saying this but my Grandad used to tell me "It's not what you've got coming in lad, it's what you've got going out!". He was right too, some of the folk I know who earn quite a lot, can hardly scrape up any cash because it's all going back out again.
I'm lucky as I've got no mortgage, so even though I earn a below average wage, the only bills I have are utility bills and council tax. I'm sure what ever happens I would always be able to do something to get the money to pay them. If not, I'd sell my house at whatever price was needed to sell and move to some obscure country where the living is cheap!

We're not cash rich, but have enough insurance cover that the family would be fine if I died, get by month-to-month (though always with overdraft used).

We have enough equity in the house that we could, in the worth case, flog it and have enough cash to buy another house outright, albeit not in an area we'd particularly choose otherwise. (Through luck of buying our first house in 2000.)

We have a car but don't need it, so it could sit on the drive or be sold if needed. No credit card debt and just one small bank loan and a £90k mortgage on a £160k house.

I'm good, got a secure job, work my butt off to save money, yet don't deny myself the things I want/fancy, I don't have any debt although I have a mortgage which is small, why get a bigger house when we only need 2 bed!? so I'm great and have no worries with money, but that's because I was a d*** at uni, got myself into debt then spent 2 years afterwards working to get rid of it, I'm now debt free and certainly appreciate my money and look after things as I will not be in that situation again. So as a result of that don't have much sympathy for CERTAIN people in debt. ie students who pi**ed it away, like I did!!!!

I am in not too dissimilar a situation to those of the OP and Rich Penny.

Mortgage of £80K or so, which I guess these days is considered small, but it is still a burden and my flat has very high outgoings to the extent of being approximately 50% of the mortgage payments in service charges

No other debt. I have a good income but high outgoings with very few options to reduce them so my disposable income is perhaps not as high as those on lower salaries.

So as long as I have a good job then no problems. But if I lost my current job, and it is a real possibility at the moment, then I would still need to earn what many people would regard as a very good salary to cover my basic outgoings.

That world "wealth" calculator is pretty useless. For a start it only considers your salary, which has nothing what so ever to do with wealth, and secondly it does not consider the cost of living where you are, so can't consider buying power - in Lichtenstein with my salary I would be considered a pauper, in Haiti I'd be wealthy.

that website does put it all in perspective.
but, 130k mortgage on a 180k house, about 10k worth of other debt, which we are working hard to pay off. me and my wife have very good insurance should anything happen, and both have good pensions. Not perfect, but not bad. we want to get the debt gone and start saving within 3 years. we live very much hand to mouth at the moment month by month and I really don't like doing it. stuff like foreign holidays and major home improvements seems a long way off, but hey, stuff like that isn't really important is it?

Small outstanding mortgage due to a successful career in my twenties and a canny relocation, savings of roughly half that amount if we checked the back of every sofa, no other debts, so relatively OK from that point.

I'm in a shaky civil service position in an area that needs to downsize soon, though my redundancy will cover the mortgage. MrsMCTD can walk into an equivalently paid job if required as she is an experienced professional in her field, currently working half hours as a trainer, so relatively OK for that as well.

I have a couple of private pensions from old employers which will shrink if the stock market crashes. We both now also have relatively secure public sector pensions, but not the gold plated ones, so OK from that point of view.

If necessary I will do whatever job I have to to bring in money if required, done it in the past.

Not all luck, left school at sixteen and worked for the same firm the past thirty six years. Only ever had one family car and older ones at that, modest holidays and live in a small 3 bed end of terrace cottage which we renovated ourselves. Wife stopped work to look after our daughter and didn't get caught up in the cash in the equity and live like pools winners syndrome

As for Apple, who I follow as an investor rather than a fan, well the analysts seem to think they will truck on fine without Jobs. Apple shares are down only 0.58% today which is a pretty good show for any corporation that's just lost it's CEO let alone one who is venerated like Jobs.

Lower than average wage.
Very small mortgage <£20k to pay.
No debts.
Few K in the bank.

Should be laughing really, but ever since i was made redundant from my previous job after 23yrs i feel uncomfortable about spending large amounts, which is why i'm sat on a cash sum rather than getting the new kitchen and bathroom i need!

No mortgage, comfortable salary, spend quite a bit less than I earn and have done for a long time. No debt at all, and handily all my car-related costs are more than covered by my car/mileage allowances at work.

Only financial-related worries are that I'm unlikely to get a mortgage any time soon on a place I'd actually want to live in, but will keep saving my deposit money anyway. And that shares going down mean my (fairly young) pension is worth less - plenty of time to make that up though.

However the point is if you live here you are well off however poor you are here.

Well I know what you mean but that's not necessarily accurate. If you are a subsistence farmer somewhere in Sub Saharan Africa you might be doing ok for your and your family; however there'll be people begging on the streets of London who make more per day but are a hell of a lot worse off.

It's not really useful to compare monetary income between two people when the cost of living and the non-monetary economy are so different.

Hmmm.
Paid an ok wage, recently moved house & ensured that we can pay the mortgage on one of our salaries.
I currently overpay the mortgage, save a small amount of money per month & put money aside for car costs like servicing, insurance, MOT etc. seeing as I do a lot of miles & like to keep on top of the car costs.

I also have a small cash buffer in the bank, but that is slowly disappearing with getting the house sorted out.

I do tend to worry about money & rarely splash out on treats.....things like a new ipod (mine doesn't hold all my music) , new camera equipment etc...
It amazes me how relaxed people can be even when they have massive debts & monthly outgoings.